Shattered
by melody425
Summary: Elena comes home to find Uncle John half dead and no idea who did this to him or where Jeremy or Jenna are. Who will come to her rescue? This is a story I wrote during the summer after season 1. It's how I wanted the first scene of episode 1 in season 2 to go. I forgot about typing up the story until now. It's currently a one-shot, but I may add more if there's interest.


Elena closes her front door behind her and heads to the bottom of the stairs.

"Jeremy? Are you up?" she calls. The next second Elena hears a noise from the kitchen. '_If that's Jeremy, why didn't he answer me?'_ Elena thinks worriedly. "Jeremy?" Are you okay?" she says hesitantly as she walks towards the kitchen.

As she comes around the corner, she sees Jonathan crumpled on the floor, bleeding profusely.

"Uncle John!" Elena exclaims as she rushes over to him. She kneels and puts her hands over his stomach wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

"What happened?" she asks hurriedly.

"Ka...Katherine," he manages to sputter out.

"What?" Elena gasps.

"She...she's here..."

A cold chill runs down Elena's spine. "Where is she?"

Jonathan starts to cough up blood. They both can sense that he's not going to make it. He struggles, but manages to say in between his gasps, "She's here...in the house..."

Elena completely freezes. She can't hear anything but her own heart beating faster and faster. Her mind is moving so quickly, trying to figure out what to do. Part of her wants to run out of the house and find Stefan and Damon. The other part of her knows she needs to see if Jenna and Jeremy are alright, but she is terrified of seeing Katherine.

After a few seconds, Elena manages to unfreeze and looks down to see that John is dead. She removes her hands from his bloody wound and is just about to get up when she senses a presence behind her.

"Elena."

Her blood runs cold as she recognizes the voice coming from behind her. It sounds like her voice. Taking a deep, uneven breath, she slowly stands up and turns around.

It really is like looking in a mirror. Across the kitchen stands Katherine. She looks exactly like Elena: same hair, same face shape, same nose, same lips, same body shape, even their clothes are similar. The one difference Elena notices though is in her eyes. There is no life in them. Katherine's eyes are just Isobel's, void of all humanity.

"Hmmm...," Katherine muses, "I've wondered what our first real meeting would be like..."

"Real meeting?" Elena asks hesitantly.

"Oh, I've been in Mystic Falls for a few weeks now watching you, and Stefan, and Damon," she explains as she starts to walk around the counter. Elena doesn't dare move.

"I have to admit," Katherine continues, "you are a lot like me Elena. You certainly look like me and you have the same infatuation with the Salvatore brothers that I used to have," she pauses, "or still have..."

"I love Stefan," Elena interrupts, "Damon and I are just friends."

"Oh don't deny it Elena. I saw the way that you two danced together at the pageant..."

Elena gasps. Katherine has now walked around the entire counter and is standing directly in front of her, only a few steps away.

"Yes Elena, I was there. You may love Stefan, but you and Damon have a connection. The chemistry that you two have is so passionate, it's on fire. It's almost as passionate as what we used to have. The way he kissed you, well me, just now, wow, it was like we've never been a part."

Elena looks confused and disgusted. "He kissed you?"

"Oh don't fret Elena. He thought I was you."

"Did you do anything to him?" Elena asks suddenly worried.

"No, he left after your rude aunt interrupted us."

"Jenna? What did you do to her?" Elena squeaks, feeling tears well up in her eyes.

"She's fine...for now anyway. I just gave her a nasty bump on the head, but you really should go and check on your brother Jeremy..."

"Why?" Elena manages to whisper through her tears.

"Well, when I went to knock him out as well, he was already unconscious..." Katherine's mouth turns into a vicious smirk.

"Jeremy!" Elena screams. She is suddenly not afraid of Katherine anymore. Jeremy is more important to her. She decides to make a run for it upstairs. She no longer cares what Katherine could do to her. She has to get to Jeremy.

In a flash, Elena bolts from her spot and heads for the stairs. She sees nothing as she runs except for what is in front of her. She cannot tell if Katherine is following her or has already beaten her upstairs. She barges into Jeremy's room and sees him sprawled out on his bed passed out.

"Jeremy?" Elena screams while shaking his shoulders. Without hesitation, she grabs the phone and dials 9-1-1.

"9-1-1 dispatch. What is your emergency?" a friendly yet stern female voice asks.

"My brother, he's unconscious for some reason."

"But he's breathing?"

Elena looks at Jeremy's chest and can just barely see the shallow rise and fall of his chest.

"Yes."

"Okay, your address?"

"227 Mystic Lane."

"An ambulance is on its way. Do you know what happened?"

"No, I just found him like this," says Elena panicked.

"Okay, look around his room for me and tell me if you see anything unusual."

"Okay," Elena says shakily.

She begins looking around his room quickly. Everything looks normal, but then something she can see from the open bathroom door catches her eye. She runs into the bathroom and realizes that what caught her eye is the shine off the side of a plastic orange pill bottle.

"I think he took a bunch of pain meds," Elena says hurriedly.

"Okay, thank you miss. I'll inform the paramedics. Please go and wait by your front door to let them in. They should be there soon."

"Okay, thank you," she blurts out and then hangs up the phone.

As she does this, she looks down at the bathroom counter and sees something else. It's a small, clear glass vile, but it has some red residue inside it. As Elena picks it up, she realizes what's inside it. She immediately looses grip on the vile and drops it. It falls, hits the counter tops, and shatters.

"No...no...oh my gosh, no, no no!" Elena sobs.

A knock at the front door makes Elena jump. She quickly runs downstairs to let the paramedics in. Elena grabs the doorknob and jerks the door open.

"Elena?" a worried voice asks.

"Damon?" Elena manages to sputter through her tears.

In less than a second, Damon is inside her house and in the next, Elena crumples into Damon's arms. He just holds her tight for a moment and lets her cry. Her sobs are so heavy. Damon feels his heart breaking more and more with each sob.

"Elena, shhh...What's wrong? What's happened?" Damon could smell blood in the house when he approached their door and now inside, he can smell a lot of it.

Elena lifts her head off of Damon's shoulder and takes a deep breath. "Katherine's here, she killed Jonathan, Jeremy's unconscious, I don't know where Katherine's gone, and oh my gosh, I don't even know where Jenna is!" Elena lists quickly as she jerks her head around looking for signs of Katherine or Jenna.

Damon was really listening, but Elena was speaking so fast and she was still sobbing that he only got pieces of what she said.

"Elena...Elena honey," Damon takes her face between his hands and slowly brings her head towards his until their foreheads are touching.

"Shhhh...," Damon sooths.

They both close their eyes until Elena calms down. After a minute, they both take a deep breath and Damon lets go of Elena's face. They both stand up straight and focus.

"Alright Elena, from the beginning."

"Okay. I came home and heard a thump in the kitchen. I went in and Uncle John was bleeding. He had a stomach wound and a few of his fingers had been cut off, his ring finger was one of them. He told me that Katherine was here in the house..."

"Is she still here?" Damon interjects, worried.

"I don't think so, but I'm not sure."

"Okay, continue," Damon says as he begins to heighten his senses to try and detect her presence.

"Then he died. I felt a presence behind me. It was Katherine. We talked..."

"What about?" Damon interrupts, curious.

Elena hesitates.

"Sorry, off topic," Damon nervously corrects with a terse smirk.

"I asked about Jenna and she said she knocked her out. She then said that Jeremy was already unconscious. I ran upstairs and he was passed out. There was an empty pill bottle of pain meds. I called 9-1-1 and they are on their way."

"Okay, well that's good then," states Damon reassuringly, while trying to process all of what Elena said.

"But Damon..." Elena says as tears threaten to well up in her eyes again, "there was an empty vile on the counter too, it looks like it had blood in it..."

Damon's eyes grow big. "It must have had Anna's blood in it..." speculates Damon.

"Where is Anna?" Elena asks forcefully.

Damon's eyes sadden and Elena's expression softens.

"She's dead. She died in the fire."

"Oh," Elena looks down.

"This is all my fault..."

"What? No Damon, this isn't your fault," says Elena as she looks up into Damon's eyes. She is surprised by what she sees. Guilt and shame are written all over Damon's face. This time, Elena takes her hand and cups Damon's face. He leans into her hand. For a moment they just stand in silence. Damon leaning into her hand with his eyes closed and Elena trying to understand what must be running through Damon's mind.

"But it is my fault Elena," says Damon as he lifts his head up out of her hand and lifts his eyes to hers. "I came by earlier to apologize to Jeremy about Vicki. I told him that Anna was dead and that I wished I could have helped her. That must have set him off..."

They both are silent.

"And," continues Damon, "just to further prove how this is all my fault let me ask you this. Did we make out earlier tonight?"

This blunt question shocks Elena, but she manages to shake her head.

"Damn it! I knew I recognized that kiss!" Damon says to himself more than to Elena.

"So you kissed her..." Elena says a little hurt.

Damon looks directly into Elena's eyes.

"I thought I was kissing you Elena," Damon states, still looking into her eyes, "I wanted to be kissing you..."

Elena surprisingly feels no shock at this declaration. They hold each other's gaze for another moment and then feeling awkward, they both look away. The next moment they hear a sound outside. It's the ambulance pulling into the driveway.

"Elena, you let the paramedics in. I'll run upstairs and look for Jenna."

And in a flash, he is gone, using his super-speed before the paramedics come in. Elena opens the door quickly to let the paramedics and the gurney inside. Her heart begins to race again.

"Where is he?" one paramedic asks.

"Uh, first door on your right at the top of the stairs," Elena says quickly.

In what seems like a flash, the paramedics and the gurney are up the stairs too. Elena stays glued to her spot on the floor. She knows that she would just be in the paramedics' way. She is also trying to control a new wave of panic that is setting in.

However, this new wave of panic decreases as she sees Damon helping a conscious yet groggy Jenna downstairs.

"Jenna!" Elena screams as she rushes to hug her. Damon keeps a hand on Jenna's back as she is still a little unsteady on her feet.

"I am so glad you are alright!" Elena continues as they continue to hug.

"What happened?" asks Jenna, touching the protruding bump on her head.

"Please step aside," says one of the paramedics. They are bringing Jeremy down on the gurney.

"What's wrong with Jeremy?" Jenna asks with a scared expression on her face.

"Just go with them Aunt Jenna. I'll come by the hospital soon to explain what happened."

"Excuse me," Damon says, touching one of the paramedic's arms, "is he going to be alright?"

"We managed to get him to throw up most of the pills. When we get to the hospital, we'll pump the rest of his stomach just to make sure, but yes, he should hopefully be okay."

Damon and Elena both let out a pent up sigh at the news. Jenna follows the paramedics out and climbs into the ambulance after they get Jeremy in. She gives Elena one last confused and hurt look before the doors close.


End file.
